ESPN analyst: Arizona Diamondbacks should stand pat

At 54-51, the Arizona Diamondbacks are just 2.5 games out of first in the NL West.

And given the fact that they had spent the great majority of the season in the division’s top spot, it’s fair to believe that they may reclaim their lead at some point.

However, the D-backs are a disappointing 4-6 since the All-Star Break and appear to be fading. And without a trade, perhaps their hopes of earning a playoff spot are fleeting, at best.

Yet, ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden, in an Insider article, lists the D-backs as one of five teams that should not make a big deadline deal.

Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers’ phone never stops ringing because of the team’s stable of young starting pitchers in the major and minor leagues. However, when you’re a midmarket club, you just can’t trade that type of talent for stopgap players at the trade deadline.

The Diamondbacks are a solid blue-collar team that looked like an 85-win team in March and still look like that three days from the trade deadline.

In other words, this is a good team but not a great team. To make significant trades to improve the team, they’d have to mortgage the future because everyone keeps asking for elite pitching prospect Archie Bradley and Tyler Skaggs, and it just doesn’t make sense to trade years of non-arbitration eligibility to try to win now, especially when this team simply isn’t good enough to win a World Series by making those types of deadline deals.

Outside of a small deal for a left-handed reliever, they’re probably better off doing nothing and trying to win over the next several years with the young pitching they have stockpiled.

While a playoff spot would be nice, most people seem to agree that the Diamondbacks should not make a deal that has them part with one of their top prospects.

So while it may be difficult to watch a team that has a shot to win a division simply stand pat, it may actually be the best thing for the franchise going forward.

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